Engaging with Stakeholders

Who are your Stakeholders?

“Stakeholder” simply means anyone who has an interest in or could be impacted by the library’s success. 

As you begin discussing your strategic plan, think about who you serve: which communities and demographics do you see using the library?  Who in your community is not using the library?  

Outside the library, what does your community need or want?  What are they worried about? What are they excited about? 

All Possible Stakeholders

Categories of library stakeholders may include: 

• Lead library staff/staff representatives
• Library board/trustees
• Municipal/County, or other public officials  
• Library Friends and/or Foundation leaders  
• Staff from an affiliated regional or system library 
• Local school leaders and teachers 
• Business leaders or Chamber of Commerce   
• Representatives from other cultural or arts organizations  
• Representatives from social service agencies   
• Other governmental department heads, such as police and parks  
• Religious leaders
• Representatives from key civic groups, such as Rotary or Kiwanis  
• Individuals from the local philanthropic community, such as a community foundation or other potential funding sources
• Students, faculty, and staff at nearby colleges or universities  
• Residents and staff at nearby military bases  
• Local labor organizations 
• Homeschool community  
• Representatives from certain demographics important in the community and to the library.

Consider the different age groups and other distinct audiences in your community.

Who are the people you know that might be good representatives of these stakeholder groups?

Gather Community Input

Your methods for gathering community input may vary depending on the size of your library. Consider using focus groups, community meetings, surveys, or using existing community survey data as you set your goals and priorities. 

Comparison of Data Collection Methods

	SURVEYS	INTERVIEWS and FOCUS GROUPS	STATISTICAL REPORTS
SAMPLE SIZE	Larger	Smaller	Larger
PATRON PRIVACY	Can be anonymous	Confidential	Confidential
BURDEN	Lower for data collector and respondent	Higher for data collector and respondent	Depends on whether the statistics are automated or collected manually
TYPE OF INFORMATION COLLECTED	Self-reported; attitudes, perceptions, opinions, facts	Self-reported, unique experiences	Numbers

Surveys

Surveys can be a less labor-intensive way to request feedback from a large number of people so that the committee can begin to identify priority areas to discuss further. Find someone on your committee, staff, or in your community with survey design experience to help you create a small set of meaningful questions that will yield useful data. What do you really want to know? Try to limit to your most important 15-20 questions so that people are more likely to complete the survey. 

You will need to be sure to announce your survey through any channels where community members will notice it. Online surveys are most convenient, but you can also keep paper copies on-hand for people without internet access, or if you are doing an outreach event in the community where internet is not available. 

One thing to be aware of when reviewing survey data is that the results may be skewed depending on users’ ability to access and complete the survey. Survey data should be considered as a useful addition to your community data set but should not be the only way you are asking your community for input. 

Interviews and Focus Groups

One-on-one interviews or small group (2-5 people) discussions with members from your various stakeholder and audience groups can be a powerful way to gather a smaller set of in-depth data. This could include audiences who use the library, people who don’t use the library, and local community leaders.

Some questions you might ask include: 

• What are the most critical needs of your community both now and in the future? 
• What is your perception of the library? 
• What does the library do particularly well or poorly? 
• How could the library improve? 
• How could the library serve you and your community(ies) better? 
• What should the library look like in 5-10 years? 

Community Stakeholder Gathering

Depending on the size of your library, your strategic planning process could include a larger gathering involving community stakeholders. The goal of this gathering is to gather a diverse range of opinions and ideas from your community about what the strategic direction of the library should be for the next few years.  

Plan to invite twice as many people as you expect to attend in order to ensure a good representative turnout. Choose a conveniently located gathering place where people can be comfortably seated for a longer meeting. And, of course, providing refreshments is always a good idea! 

The agenda for this gathering could include an overview of the current state of the library (including a summary of your statistical findings), any survey results you’ve already collected, and possibly state or national library trends, in addition to a discussion session covering the questions listed in the Interviews and Focus Groups section. 

A skilled facilitator can really make these gatherings engaging for the participants and produce the data you need to inform the library's written plan.


In the next activity you will learn about Creating the Draft Plan.